Google Hangout with Author Christine Fonseca

In all reality, who actually knows the perfect way to get to where we want to go? Who knows the ‘secret’ to a ‘perfect life’? (whatever ‘perfect’ means)…nobody really knows. We all find our own way through life, we may get to the same place or maybe we don’t, either way, since we are different people, we get there on different paths at different times, right? So, I ask you, what book can our teenage daughters get such simple, honest and straight-forward advice for their personal inward journey? …

Christine Fonseca has answered this question with her book The Girl Guide Finding Your Place in a Mixed-Up World. She gives our girls the skills to guide themselves where they want to go. Fonesca effortlessly imparts the tips to our teenage girls, without telling them what to do, or how exactly to execute their goals and dreams in order for them to make their own path, and lead themselves.

My 15 year old daughter and I read this book together in preparation for our Working Moms Against Guilt Google hangout with Fonseca on June 1st (this coming Saturday – Yeah!). Not only did reading this help us prepare for the hangout (haha), but also provided my daughter, and even me, with ways to lead the life we want, as well as how to accomplish and focus on what my daughter dreams of.

Let me first say, the advice and direction could not have been more geared toward teenage girls … meaning, there was no confusion in who the information was for. Fonesca made it very obvious and easy in the way she gives tips, how they can execute the new knowledge, but she also gave a little lee-way to do our own thing and in our own way. Fonesca gave us a system that we could adapt and manage at our own pace, time, and consistency. I loved that she didn’t say ‘this is what you have to do specifically’, instead she gave us hints on how to do it because there really is no exact formula for a ‘perfect’ life (whatever that may be). There is no one-way or the highway. And even if there were, most people would pick the highway anyway….don’t you think?

In Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken”, he wrote, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”. Personally I believe that being your own person is one of the perks of life, becoming yourself, choosing for yourself, yet the responsibility that comes with it can be overwhelmingly stressful, but definitely amazing. My point is that one of the things I deeply admire about Fonesca and her book is not only that she lets the reader choose her own path, but also encourages our daughters to be their own person and experience [life] for themselves. In one of my favorite chapters, “Team Me”, Fonesca quotes Rev. Mona Chicks in a ‘Note to self” titled “Just Be You”. Chicks explains, “It’ll take a long time to recover if you lose yourself now. Don’t compare yourself to others….Find your dream and live it!” (pg 57).

Can’t wait to ‘hangout’ with all of you on June 1st. The fun starts at 7 p.m. Get more info, and a link to the Hangout on Saturday night right here. See you there!